


I Spy with My Little Eye

by belovedstill



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Baby Claire - Freeform, Castiel is Claire Novak's Parent, Hinted Strangers to Lovers, M/M, Single Parent Castiel, Smooth Dean, Strangers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 07:16:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9425174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belovedstill/pseuds/belovedstill
Summary: It takes a child, a stranger, a necklace, and... an angel? to make a long train trip much more interesting.





	

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on [my blog](http://casinthongs.tumblr.com/).

“I spy with my little eye,” Claire recites, her five-year-old voice loud as it carries around the small compartment and then stops when she looks around the place. She’s sitting on one of the plush seats, leaning against her father, rocking her legs back and forth. “Hmm…”

Castiel watches his little girl with a smile, waiting for the first clue of what she’s going to be looking at this time.

They’ve been playing the game for the last half an hour, and so far the only other person sitting in their compartment - a good-looking, light-haired man in his thirties, if Cas guesses right – hasn’t said a word of complaint. The Novak can’t help but feel silent gratitude towards their companion. Train rides are tiring enough for children even without them being bored to death.

Claire breathes in, abruptly, a sign she has found an object interesting enough for the game. “I spy with my little eye something that is gold!”

Castiel raises his eyebrows but moves his eyes around the small room. Following Claire’s gaze would be cheating, after all.

He hums to himself and says, just to keep the game alive, “Is it the sun?”

The girl shakes her head. “No.”

“Your apple juice?” Another shake. “Your teddy?”

“She’s _brown,_ papa.”

Cas smiles. “Ah, of course she is. How silly of me.”

The man sitting across of them lets out a breathy chuckle. Castiel loses his focus until Claire pokes at his side, making him jump.

“I’m still spying,” she reminds him. She turns towards the stranger again, and only then Cas lets himself follow her eyes.

The man is clearly busy, reading one of those _lots-of-text, minimum-pictures_ grey newspapers that he has spread in his lap. His eyes barely move over the letters, so Cas guesses he must be looking at one of the rare photos.

The Novak glances a little lower, skimming over the bridge of a freckled nose and trying exceptionally hard not to pay any attention to the way the man is worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. His eyes move lower again, and that’s when he sees the man’s necklace, a gold head of some sorts, hung on a black string.

“Claire,” he sighs, leaning his head to catch the girl’s eye, “leave the kind man out of the game.”

The blonde pouts. “But—”

“It’s okay.”

They both look up at the stranger.

He’s smiling at them, not reading the paper anymore.

Castiel swallows nervously. “I’m so sorry, sir, we didn’t mean to bother you.”

The man shakes his head. “Call me Dean,” he tells them both and grins at Claire, reaching to the necklace around his neck. “Were you looking at this?”

The girl nods with a small ‘aha’. When Dean lets go of the gold hanger, she tilts her head. “You’re better at this game than papa.”

Castiel rolls his eyes at the words, fighting the smile that tries to take over his lips. He loses, and his mouth curls in a small smile the moment he notices Dean’s green eyes on him.

“Do you want to play with us?” Claire asks then, completely unaware of her father’s sudden shyness.

Cas is about to remind her that Dean is an adult and he probably doesn’t want to play silly games with them, but the man himself beats him to it, in the most surprising way.

“Of course,” he says.

Claire squeals in delight and rushes to explain him all the rules.

It’s only twenty minutes later that the man is finally allowed to be the one giving them the clues. Castiel doesn’t find it surprising at all; his daughter loves having people guess what’s on her mind.

“I spy with my little eye…” Dean trails off, eyes fixed on the window. He smirks, suddenly, and says, “An angel.”

Claire gasps. “An angel?! Where?!” She jumps over to the window, clutching her teddy bear close so it can look for the heavenly being with her.

Cas frowns and searches the passing landscape, too, but there’s nothing except for the sky, trees, and several cows grazing in the fields in the distance.

Dean probably only said it to distract Claire long enough to stop talking, he thinks bitterly, getting ready to protect his daughter. All the facts about five-year-olds needing to move and babble and play come to the front of his mind and his lips part with the first words on that matter, but—no sound leaves him.

Dean isn’t looking _outside_ the window, but at the glass itself, Cas realises when he meets the reflection of the man’s green eyes staring right back at him.

Dean’s never intended on quietening Claire down; he’s been looking at Castiel’s reflection the whole time.

The Novak clears his throat, trying to get his voice back. “This is not how you play the game,” he says and sends prayers to the Heavens above that Dean doesn’t hear the hammering of his heart. “You’re not supposed to say what exactly you see.”

Dean smiles. “You found it, though.”

Claire looks away from the glass and stares at her father. “You found the angel? But I didn’t see anything!”

Cas gives her an awkward smile, feeling his cheeks warming up a bit.

The girl squints through the window again, but after another minute she gives up. “It must have been so pretty,” she sighs, pouting as she gets back onto her seat.

“Oh yeah.” Dean nods, and when his eyes meet Castiel’s, he adds, “The prettiest one I’ve ever seen.”

Cas doesn’t stop blushing throughout the rest of the train ride.


End file.
